The Columbia Tennis League is the local organization of the USTA in the Columbia, South Carolina metropolitan area. The league features organized competition throughout the year for adults, seniors and children. The adult, senior and kids leagues compete in the spring and fall. The Mixed Doubles and Combo Doubles compete in early and late summer, respectively.

CTL Calendar of EventsSpring Season

Spring season is almost complete. Please check TennisLink to find your team and schedule. Here's a list of locations and times for the city playoffs. Please check with your level coordinator for seeding information.

April 26
2.5 women @ Cauhgman Road: 9:30 am and 2:00 pm
3.5 senior women @ Parklane 9:30 am and 2:00 pm
3.0 men @ Southeast Park at 9:30 am and 2:00 pm
4.0 women @ Columbia Tennis Center 9:30 am and 2:00 pm

May 3
3.0 Women @ Columbia Tennis Center 9:30 am and 2:00 pm
3.0 Women @ Southeast Park 2:00 pm
3.5 Men @ Parklane 9:30 am and 2:00 pm
3.5 Women @ Southeast Park 9:30 am
3.5 Women @ Caughman 9:30 am and 2:00 pm

May 4
3.0 Women @ Columbia Tennis Center 10:00 am and 2:00 pm
3.5 Women @ Southeast Park 2:00 pm

Mixed Doubles

Team registration for mixed doubles league has ended. The schedules for mixed doubles league will be published on Tennis Link on April 28.  Matches will begin week of May 5 and continue until completion in July.  Players may join a team roster on Tennis Link until June 30. Please review the captain's letter and the state mixed doubles rules before participating. All captains are required to submit a team information form.

CTL Scholarship

CTL will again award collegiate scholarships of $1000 to two graduating high school seniors. To be eligible for the award, the student must either have participated in the CTL Kids League or have a parent who participated in the CTL Spring, Fall, Mixed or Combo Leagues. Applications must be postmarked by May 31 and the winners will be announced on June 30.

Congratulations Burt!

CTL Leader Burt Fowles is the recipient of two prestigious awards; one from USTA SC and the other from USTA Southern Section. Burt was recently honored at the USTA SC annual state meeting where he received the award for  “2007 SC League Volunteer of the Year”!  Burt was also honored at the USTA Southern Section annual meeting where he received the award for “2007 Local League Coordinator of the Year”.   CTL has always known that Burt is the BEST, and our state and southern section know it too!  Way to go Burt – we are proud of you!  (Burt has served as CTL League Coordinator for thirty years, and officially retired this year as League Coordinator, but remains on our Board as CTL Treasurer.  Thank you Burt!)

Ratings

The Southern section of USTA has released this document about year-end ratings.

Most everyone has checked their new computer rating by now, but in case you haven't it's really easy to do so through TennisLink. If you should choose to appeal your computer rating, the procedure is now automatic! Click here for detailed instructions . (Note, only one appeal will be granted, so if you appeal your rating up or down just to see how close you are and you win it, you will not be granted a second appeal to reverse your rating.) There is also a new form for medical appeals. Requests for appeals due to medical reasons may be made at any time throughout the year. Temporary injuries or illnesses are not sufficient cause to change a rating. Medical appeals must include a statement from the physician describing the injury or illness and a prognosis for recovery.

Shoes

It has come to our attention that some players are not wearing the proper shoes during league matches. The league strongly encourages all tennis players to wear only tennis shoes while playing. Tennis shoes provide better lateral stability than running shoes or cross trainers, reducing the risk of rolling your ankle. Cross trainers and running shoes typically have black soles which make marks on hard courts and cause damage to clay courts. Many facilities have posted signs indicating that require proper tennis attire (including tennis shoes) must be worn on the courts. If a facilty official asks you leave the courts because you are not wearing the right shoes, please do not take offense and please leave the court. We need to take care of our facilities, both public and private, as well as ourselves (ankles) so that we all can enjoy many matches in the future.

Got Chalk?

If so, please leave it at home. The league received a phone call about writing on the courts with chalk to keep score. While we think chalk is a pretty clever solution to failing memories, the public facilities are having difficulty erasing the chalk marks and are asking for your cooperation to please leave your chalk at home :-)

Reminder - No Alcohol in public facilities!

We have been asked to remind all players that alcohol is prohibited in all city and county parks, especially Southeast Park where the park rangers WILL check your cooler. Violators will be prosecuted.